Hawaii, West Virginia Fund Block Grant Projects, Infrastructure

Hawaii and West Virginia have released nearly $23 million for community block grant and local infrastructure projects. Hawaii put $9.3 million behind local infrastructure projects and West Virginia has authorized $12.9 million in community block grant projects.

In Hawaii, funding will go to improving public safety facilities; the first phase of a Financial System Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) project to upgrade state financial systems, and various state-owned facilities improvements.

The financial ERP project is notable as several states are undergoing similar modernizations. CivSource reported yesterday on the expansion of a partnership in Iowa with online payments processor Dwolla to make more state user fees payable online. In New York City, financial departments there have only recently moved off mainframe computers. The first phase of the Hawaii project will include building a requirements list and conducting a needs assessment for financial departments in the state.

In West Virginia, cities there are seeing funding for community block grant eligible projects. 15 critical infrastructure projects were funded through the award. The majority of funded projects focus on wastewater and sewer improvements in cities and counties throughout West Virginia. As a result of these investments, nearly 3,500 households in communities across the state will receive new or improved services.

“Economic and infrastructure development efforts, like those supported by the Small Cities Block Grant program, represent a commitment to the future of our state—providing a foundation for future development in our communities and making West Virginia a better place to live,” Governor Tomblin said.